Russia's Ministry Of Energy Drives Crypto Mining Legalization

Russia’s Ministry Of Energy Drives Crypto Mining Legalization

Updated: 21 June 2023

Disclosure

Don’t invest unless prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, you shouldn’t expect to be protected if something goes wrong.

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage

Russia’s Ministry of Energy is pushing for the legalization of crypto mining and notably wants lawmakers to press ahead with the much-anticipated mining-related bill.

RECENTLY: 🇷🇺 Russia’s Ministry of Energy is pushing for the legalization of industrial crypto mining and urging lawmakers to proceed with a related bill.

— Coingraph | News (@CoingraphNews) June 20, 2023

According to the Russian News Agency Tass, the ministry has expressed its support for the legalization of mining. It expects lawmakers to approve the introduction of taxation for miners, as revealed during the weekend at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Energy Vice Minister, Pavel Snikkars, has emphasized the ministry’s desire to classify crypto miners as a distinct category of energy consumers and implement taxation for this group.

Snikkars has highlighted the importance of identifying and regulating crypto miners.

The Vice Minister has acknowledged that ”specific regulatory measures” must be introduced to govern the activities effectively.

Snikkars noted:

We want crypto miners to be recognized as a category of energy consumers. We hope that taxation will be introduced for this category of consumers. We need to be able to identify crypto miners.

Snikkars has notably stipulated that the Ministry of Energy plans to propose “certain restrictions” on the “generating capacities” made available to miners.

Russia Mining Industry

In recent years, several crypto-mining hotspots have sprung up in Russia. Some of the hotspots include Irkutsk Oblast in Siberia.

The Irkutsk authorities have complained that miners are straining local energy resources. However, still, they have shown interest in allowing industrial mining operations to thrive.

Much of the problem revolves around crypto mining not being recognized as an industry in Russia. As a result, energy firms cannot charge miners at industrial rates in most situations.

The Ministry of Energy, on the other hand, proposes the establishment of a dedicated crypto-mining rate separate from industrial and residential rates, to enable overcome the problem. This approach would provide a more accurate representation of the energy consumption associated with mining operations.

This Russian forum is super important. The BRICS’ version of Davos. The description of the video says that Russia is no2 in the world in crypto mining, with only USA being no1. https://t.co/xWQ3AfzpQI pic.twitter.com/sqwwNPXQ1i

— Shimon 🇺🇸 + ₿ = 🎉 (@ShimonLazarov) June 16, 2023

Additionally, the Vice Minister has noted:

We will ensure that the needs of this particular category of energy consumers are represented with regulation and legislation. And we will bring stability to this situation.

Nonetheless, the Ministry of Energy is determined to ensure that crypto miners’ specific energy consumption needs are adequately represented through regulation and legislation.

By bringing stability to the situation, the ministry aims to strike a balance that supports the crypto-mining industry while safeguarding the country’s energy resources.